Jesus did not use guilt to motivate others, neither should we

There are different ways to motivate people to do what they ought to do...or what you want them to do.  The method we use to motivate others has a huge influence on whether or not the person will follow.  Guilt can be a very powerful motivator, it's also the easiest.  If you point out to someone why they ought to do, or not do, a certain thing - and accompany that "ought" with a heaping measure of condemnation, name-calling, and shaming, you can get people to do almost anything.  Which is fine, as long as your main goal is compliance and control.  However, as is the case in many other areas of life, the easy path is often the most destructive.  You know people who use guilt on you…you may even have the image of someone popping into your mind right now.  I do.  These people hold sway over your soul, and have a way of holding your peace & joy & contentment for ransom until you do, or don’t do, what they require in order to approve of you.

This is not the way of Jesus.  Although there are many in today’s world who see Christians as self-righteous and narrow-minded guilt-police…and often this accusation is painfully accurate…Jesus did not use guilt to motivate others, neither should we.  When we lose our grace, and start enforcing rules as a means of acceptance, we become just like the Pharisee’s in Jesus’ day….His greatest adversaries and enemies.  

Jesus led with love and service, self-sacrificially.  In no way does this mean that He condoned wrongdoing, but He didn’t hold His acceptance of others over their heads until they did right.  He loved and accepted people as His friends, and then influenced them in ways of righteousness out of the context of that love-based relationship.  This is by far the more difficult method of influencing others, it demands the most of us…but it is right.

This is the kind of Jesus that this sinner fell in love with as a 16-year old…the kind of Jesus people are longing for today. 

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command….This is my command: Love each other.”  (Jesus, in John 15:13-17)